Robert Hekkenberg

Sixty years of research on ship rudders: effects of design choices on rudder performance

ABSTRACT Rudders are primary steering devices for merchant ships. The main purpose of using rudders is to generate forces for course keeping and manoeuvring. In exceptional cases, rudders are also used for emergency stopping and roll stabilisation. Furthermore, rudders affect propeller thrust efficiency and total ship resistance. Therefore, rudders are important to navigation safety and transport efficiency. The performance of rudders depends on the rudder hydrodynamic characteristics, which are affected by the design choices. Scholarly articles concerning the design of rudders date back more than 60 years. Moreover, a lot of knowledge fragments of rudders exist in literature where ship manoeuvrability and fuel consumption are discussed. It is worthwhile to gather this information not only for researchers to advance the state-of-the-art development but also for designers to make proper choices. To have a contemporary vision of the rudders, this paper presents a consolidated review of design impacts on rudder performance in ship manoeuvrability, fuel consumption, and cavitation. The discussed design choices are rudder working conditions (Reynolds numbers and angles of attack), profiles (sectional shapes), properties (area, thickness, span, chord, and rudder aspect ratios), types (the position of the stock and the structural rudder–hull connection), and interactions (among the hull, the propeller, and the rudder). Further research is suggested on high-lift rudder profiles, multiple-rudder configurations and interactions among the hull, the propeller, and the rudder. Recommendations for industry practices in the selection of the rudder design choices are also given.

New Estimation Methods for the Steel Weight of European Inland Dry Bulk Ships

There are hardly any methods available for the estimation of the steel weight of inland ships in the earliest design stages. The few weight estimation methods that are available are out of date, limited to a narrow band of main dimensions and not sensitive enough to be used for innovative designs. In this article, which summarizes key results from the PhD thesis of Hekkenberg (2013), new methods are derived for the estimation of the steel weight of inland dry bulk ships. The estimation methods that are presented are derived from large systematic series of computer-generated ship designs that comply with Lloyds Registers rules regarding their structure and with the European rules for freeboard. The structure and weight of these designs are validated by a comparison of modeled scantlings with the scantlings of midship sections of existing ships. Further validation is done by a comparison of the modeled overall steel weight with the steel weight of actual ships and the weight estimates of existing methods. The designs are used to derive two types of estimation methods: the first is a set of simple formulas that are valid for inland ships with common sizes and L/B ratios and the second is a more complex set of formulas that allows estimation of the steel weight of inland ships with draughts ranging from 1.5 to 4.5 m, lengths of 40‐185 m, beams of 5‐25 m, and L/B ratios of 4‐20.

Hydrodynamic characteristics of multiple-rudder configurations

ABSTRACT The manoeuvring performance of inland vessels is even more crucial than that of seagoing ships due to more complex navigation environment. One of the most effective possibilities to improve ship manoeuvrability is to change the rudder configuration. Twin or even quadruple rudders and high-lift profiles are widely applied to inland vessels. When inland vessels equip with multiple rudders, the interaction effects between the rudders affect the hydrodynamic characteristics of each rudder. This paper presents a study on these interaction effects using two-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) methods. Various twin-rudder and quadruple-rudder configurations with different profiles and spacing among the multiple rudders were studied. RANS simulations were performed with a k − ω SST turbulence model and a pressure-based coupled algorithm. Series of NACA, IFS and wedge-tail profiles were tested. Regression formulas have been proposed for the twin-rudder lift and drag coefficients. Finally, interaction effects on multiple rudder hydrodynamics have been summarised.

Approximate orthogonal simplification of 3D model

In this paper, a method to simplify a model in 3D environment is presented. The simplified model is achieved by finding the boundary box of the sub-division of the model, while the size of each sub-division is optimized using Tribes-D Particle Swarm Optimization. With this approach the complex 3D model can be simplified with a predefined level of detail. We demonstrated this approach on a pump model and compare it with other simplification method.